However, while officers were assessing the fruits of their labor, Ratchada Kerdtrap, 36, walked in on the bust while carrying a sack stuffed full of the leaves.

The officers asked her what was in the sack, and she reluctantly replied that it was full of krathom.

After a lengthy count, police reported that the sack contained an additional 1,600 leaves.

The woman was also arrested, and she and Jarern were taken to Phuket City Police Station.

â€œBoth were charged with possession of krathom for using and selling,â€ Maj Chalermchai said.

Sawed-off shotgun…..hand on the pump!

NAKHON SRI THAMMARAT: A Buddhist ordination ceremony in Phraphrom District took a turn for the worst on July 6 after an outbreak of violence led to a firearms incident which left one unlucky follower of the Middle Way with a serious pain in his crotch.

The evening began jovially at the ceremony held in Na Phru Village 3. A band had been hired and youths from around the area turned up to join in the festivities, with each group establishing their own drinking circle.

Later on in the evening, while the drinks continued to flow, the young crowd started to strut their stuff on the dance floor. A few drunken dancers began bumping into each other and tempers became frayed.

Bumps turned into pushes, pushes turned into punches, punches turned into chairs being thrown, and before long the dance floor had erupted into the scene of an all-out riot.

The first victim of the night was Theeraphon Wongkrasap, 19, who was stabbed twice in the back. On seeing his friend attacked, Sayan Phannana, 20, went to draw his shotgun that was tucked in the belt of his trousers.

In his haste to pull out his weapon to save his friend, and due to being extremely drunk, Sayan set the hair-trigger gun off while it was still tucked in his trousers.

The blast blew his penis â€œto smithereensâ€ and the bullet lodged in his left foot.

When Lt Col Chalermwan Wannasathit, duty inspector at Phraphrom District Police Station, arrived with his team he found a scene of destruction with tables and chairs strewn all over the place and smashed bottles and glasses covering the floor.

In the midst of the chaos, Theeraphon and Sayan were lying on the ground groaning in pain. They were both rushed for treatment to Maharaj Hospital, where Sayan was immediately admitted for emergency surgery.

Doctors at the hospital said that it was unlikely that Sayan would ever be able to use his sexual organs as they had been completely destroyed by the force of the shotgun blast.

Police are now hunting for the youth responsible for stabbing Theeraphon.

Holy Water Buffalo Tooth!

SINGAPORE: Dental experts have raised doubts over the authenticity of a purported Buddha’s tooth in a Singapore temple, claiming it could not have come from any human being, The Sunday Times reported.

More than 60,000 donors poured 45 million Singapore dollars (29 million US dollars) and 27 kilograms of gold into the four-storey building where the tooth, said to be one of Buddha’s molars, is kept in a 3.6-metre-high stupa made of gold.

“There is absolutely no possibility that it is a human tooth,” Dr Pamela Craig, a senior lecturer at the University of Melbourne’s school of dental science, was quoted as saying.

After examining photographs, Craig said it probably came from a cow or water buffalo.

Human teeth should be rounded with a short crown and a comparatively longer root, but the picture clearly shows a long crown and a shorter root, she noted.

“Looking at a photo is clear enough, because it’s so obvious that it’s not a human tooth,” she said. “It’s like comparing a pear and an apple.”

Four other dentists, including two forensic dental experts, said the tooth could not have come from a human.

“This is an animal cheek tooth – that is, a molar at the back of the mouth,” Professor David Whittaker at Cardiff University in Britain told the newspaper.

The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple in Singapore’s Chinatown said that the tooth was discovered by a monk in 1980 in Myanmar (Burma). He gave it to Venerable Shi Fazhao, the temple’s abbot, in 2002.

The public is allowed to see the tooth twice a year, on Buddha’s birthday and the first day of the Chinese New Year.

“To me, it has always been real, and I have never questioned its authenticity,” Venerable Shi Fazhao told the newspaper.

As for the assessments of the dental experts, he said: “I don’t care what they say. If you believe it’s real, then it’s real.”

The temple dismissed the suggestion of conducting DNA tests on its relic.

“It is unlikely that any Buddhist temple or its devotees will agree to subject any sacred Buddha tooth or relic to such a test,” the temple said in a statement.